Gas turbine engines may be employed to power various devices. For example, a gas turbine engine may be employed to power a mobile platform, such as an aircraft. Gas turbine engines employ a combustion chamber upstream from one or more turbines, and as high temperature gases from the combustion chamber are directed into these turbines these high temperature gases contact downstream airfoils, such as the airfoils of a stator or a rotor blade structure. Typically, the leading edge of these airfoils experiences the full effect of the high temperature gases, which may increase the risk of oxidation of the leading edge. As higher turbine inlet temperature and higher turbine engine speed are required to improve gas turbine engine efficiency, additional cooling of the leading edge of these airfoils is needed to reduce a risk of oxidation of these airfoils associated with the gas turbine engine.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved cooling for a leading edge of an airfoil, such as an airfoil of a stator or a blade of a gas turbine engine, with a leading edge convective cooling system that allows lower temperature fluid to cool the leading edge of the airfoil via convective heat transfer. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.